


Defecit

by Mun Kiri (NekoAisu)



Series: Asks [14]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: ((i mean it in reference to prompto's unhealthy methods of weight loss)), Angst with a Happy Ending, Eating Disorders, Friendship, Gen, Internalized Fatphobia, No Smut, Self-Harm, Weight Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-25 01:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16651777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoAisu/pseuds/Mun%20Kiri
Summary: For the ask:Gladio finds out abt Prom’s unhealthy weightloss routine and /kicks his ass/





	Defecit

**Author's Note:**

> Just another warning in case you missed the tags:  
> this fic depicts prompto following an extremely harmful regimen for weight loss that includes a form of self starvation!!! please do not read if this squicks you, or may be a trigger!!! take care of yourselves, please <3
> 
> ((this also may or may not have been a way for me to vent about my own medical issues under the guise of it being a choice versus an impossibility yea))

It starts with one less thing for dinner. No fries, swapping out his soda for a tall glass of water. He skips out on calorie counting for a while. 

Prompto starts running a week in. He looks up tutorials, instructions on how to lose weight and exercise consistently. His lungs burn nearly worse than his body does the morning after. 

He takes “progress pictures,” glaring down at himself like he’s something  _other_ instead of just a kid who enjoys a good burger more than an apple. He wants to burn the photos so badly that he starts counting calories to see how far he has to go.

Really, he’s not doing too badly for himself, Prompto finds. He changes his usual foods to things with lower calorie counts, usually more fruits and vegetables than processed fast food, in pursuit of a thinner appearance. He’s still hungry, though, and the burger place he passes on his way home taunts him. 

He decides a five hundred calorie deficit isn’t enough. 

There’s nothing wrong with eating things with lower amounts of fat, skipping simple carbs like bread and replacing them with veggies clumsily chopped and tossed together into a bowl in a basic imitation of a salad. He’s read up on weight loss forums and watched videos about HIIT exercise routines that claim to help him “blast fat away” like magic. 

By the time he’s finished secondary school, he’s shot up like a rocket and thinned out like its vapor trail. 

He’s down to around a thousand two hundred calories a day, weight landing somewhere around  _maybe_ fifty-five kilograms on when he gives in and eats more than he should. The running helps him keep to it even when he lacks control ( _when he’s being fat,_ his brain likes to spit.  _Not worth talking to the Lady Lunafreya’s Noctis)._

It’s honestly funny to him when Noctis asks him why he doesn’t eat more at lunch (half a salad and a boiled egg are  _plenty,_ thank you very much) when he’s already coasting far over his limit more and more often when they hit the arcade, or hang out after class. The chips and pizza are cluttering his tracking app with fat and failure. 

He starts making excuses, runs longer distances, spends so much time exercising and ignoring how easy it would be to grab the cereal his mom always picks up when they go grocery shopping and pour himself a big bowl of it that he’s nearly able to eke his way down to fifty even. 

Noctis just puts all his vegetables on Prompto’s napkin during lunch and raises a brow whenever he tries to insist that  _no, I’m full, okay, buddy?_ He knows not to press it after Prompto makes an excuse or two about stomach aches.

Meeting Noctis’s shield is like staring at the human equivalent to a chiseled brick wall. Gladiolus Amicitia is a powerhouse Prompto is exactly one hundred percent sure could snap him in half like a twig. He’s decently sure Gladio could wrap both his hands around his waist without issue. It’s about as comforting as it is distressing. There is absolutely nothing Gladiolus couldn’t do to keep him from Noctis if the prince ever got tired of him. 

He tries even harder to be worthy. 

There are a few long months where he sleeps in too much and feels like there’s cotton stuffed in his head, but then Gladiolus snaps him out of it with a stern, “And what do you think you’re doing there, Prom?”

He looks back to his water bottle and tries for an excuse, “Hydrating?”

“After an hour and a half of intensive Crownsguard training?”

“Yep,” he says, trying for a smile. “Can’t let that pizza from yesterday keep me from being a good member of Noct’s ‘Guard, right?”

Gladiolus frowns. “You had half a bite.” He crosses his arms and waits for some sort of explanation. 

Prompto flounders before pulling his usual, “Well, I’m not really supposed to be eating it. It gives me stomachaches.”

It’s not quite a lie. The guilt makes him ill, sometimes enough he feels he may lose what little food he’s consumed, and he knows he’s supposed to be better than that─to be better than his want  ~~need~~  for food.

His parents are good to him, if super busy, and they’d asked him if he was alright. They’d made sure he had lots of things left around the house he can snack on out of worry that maybe there wasn’t enough in the pantry for him to eat quickly while doing schoolwork. He’d found a way to foist the worst of them onto Noctis instead. 

Gladiolus stares him down not unlike the way his mom had, unimpressed and worried. “Then, what can you eat? If it’s a stomach issue, or an intolerance, Iggy needs to know.”

“It’s not that it’s just-y’know how Noct told you that we’ve gone to school together since forever?”

“Yeah  _and?”_

Prompto sighs, tired and very much aware of how badly he’s been doing in university as of late, and admits, “I used to be fat.” He spits it like poison. Gladiolus just shrugs. 

“And?”

“What do you mean ‘and?’“

He sits down next to prompto on the metal locker room bench and comments, “We know. Background checks and all that tend to unearth that sort of stuff.”

Prompto groans like he’s dying and flops backward to lean on the wall. “You’ve got to be  _kidding_ me.”

“Nope,” Gladiolus replies, smiling genially. “You know I used to be a beanpole?”

Prompto sputters, half to delirium because  _they’ve known for years and never said anything about it._ “I can’t believe that. No way. Gladiolus Amicitia, the Citadel’s beefiest Shield to date, was a skinny kid.”

“I ate like hell and never gained an ounce,” Gladiolus admits. “It was really frustrating when I was trying to bulk up because puberty tossed my metabolism even further into overdrive. I tried following a lot of diets and tutorials, y’know. Only succeeded in making myself really fuckin’ sick. You’re doing practically the same thing I did, so I’m gonna stop you right here.”

“You were the  _opposite-”_

Gladiolus silences him with a wholly unimpressed look. “We both made some bad decisions. The problem here is that you’re still making them,” he states, running a hand through his hair. “None of us want to see you land yourself in the hospital, Prom.  _Especially_ not for something we can prevent.”

“But what about Noct? I mean, why does he hang out with me if he knows I was… _like that,”_  Prompto asks. 

“Like what? A normal kid?” Gladio raises a brow. “I thought you knew Noct doesn’t care about appearances. He’s made that abundantly clear, blondie.”

Prompto struggles for words, settling on a mumbled, “But what do I do now?”

Gladiolus takes a minute and mulls it over before answering brightly, “Well, I’m sure Ignis wouldn’t mind helping you figure out a nutritional plan. We need you to be in top form if you’re gonna protect Noct. That includes eating properly.”

“Would that really be okay?” Prompto’s brain says it’s not, that once he starts to gain anything back that they’ll find him disgusting. He decides that, for once, he’ll ignore it in full. He gives a tentative and lopsided smile. 

Gladiolus grins and it’s near blindingly bright. “Hell yeah it is, Prom. C’mon, I’m sure Ignis was already counting on you joining us for dinner. I doubt his highness has even started on his trig homework without you there to help him through it.”

“Okay. I’ll…do my best.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Gladiolus says with a pat to the back. “You’re one hell of a man, y’know that?”

Prompto squawks, trying to deflect the compliment only to get slammed with fifteen others and a well meaning ruffle to his already wild hair. 

 _This can work,_ he thinks. If Noct would be okay with him being heavier, if Gladio and Ignis won’t poke fun at him over it, he thinks he’ll be able to at least give it a try. 

That night, after a good dinner and hours of even better company, Prompto is pretty sure that the guilt may never leave, that he may never be free of the toxicity he’s built into himself, but the way Noct hoots and hollers at the video games they play is a good enough distraction as any. He lets himself forget about calories and counting and deficits until the morning when Ignis stops by and tells Noctis that no, he cannot drink a whole liter of chocolate milk for breakfast. 

Then, it’s just funny how the Crown Prince of Lucis is cowed by his own advisor’s lecture about proper nutrition all the while wearing half a milk mustache he’s still too sleepy to wipe off in full. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, kudos, and concrit are appreciated! <3
> 
> Hmu at:  
> main tumblr ; kiriami-sama  
> FFXV ask tumblr; lgbt-ffxv-imagines  
> twitter ; FlamingAceKiri  
> discord ; NekoAisu#7099


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